This blog is written and maintained by Miss Cuddlywumps, a fluffy-tailed calico cat who is both classically educated and familiar with mysteries. She receives creative input from the Real Cats and clerical assistance from She of Little Talent (old SoLT, a.k.a. Roby Sweet). Comments or complaints should be addressed to Miss C rather than to old SoLt (Ms. Sweet). Ms. Sweet accepts no responsibility for Miss C's opinions.
We have an interesting “big cats in archaeology” news short
for you today, as a recent study has indicated that as early as 400 BC, the
ancient Maya of Central America had big cats that they kept in captivity.
Some of the ruins at Ceibal, Guatemala. Photo by Chixuy (2006) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
The first physical evidence of the Maya having a captive big cat
This portion of a mural from Chichen Itza, Mexico, shows a jaguar grasping a human heart. Photo via Adobe Stock.
The evidence comes from the site of Ceibal, which is in
present-day Guatemala. It was occupied for some 2,000 years, from about 1000 BC
to AD 1000. There, archaeologists discovered a mandible and molar believed to
be from a jaguar (or possibly a puma). Researchers tested isotopes (different
forms of an element’s atoms) of carbon, nitrogen, strontium, and oxygen from
these and other animal bones found at the site. The carbon and nitrogen would give
clues about what the animal ate, and the strontium and oxygen, which came from
tooth enamel, would show where the animal was born and grew up. That analysis showed
that, from a young age, the jaguar either ate maize or ate other animals that had
eaten maize. A wild cat wouldn’t be expected to have this kind of diet, so it
is possible that this jaguar was raised in captivity for ceremonial purposes
(i.e., to be sacrificed). Captive cats had
shown up in Maya art before, but this jaguar’s jaw and tooth are the first
physical evidence of the Maya keeping a big cat in captivity.
There were dogs too
The same study found that two of the dogs discovered at
Ceibal had come from over 100 miles away. These two dogs were from the same
time period as the jaguar—about 400 BC—and their presence there is evidence of dogs
being traded over long distances by the Maya.
Why are we telling you this?
Because occasionally we like to blog outside the lines to
tell you something interesting about our wild cousins, and one should always
keep tabs on one’s wild cousins.
Keep track of your wild cousins! The Maya carved this head of a jaguar ca. 550-950. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011) [CC BY 2.5].
Sharpe, Ashley, et al. 2018. “Earliest Isotopic Evidence in the Maya Region for Animal Management and Long-Distance Trade at the Site of Ceibal, Guatemala.” PNAS, March 19. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713880115
We have two fun Friday features for you today. First up is
Real Cat Webster, who has a sciencey word to share. After that, it’s on to
Friendly Fill-Ins!
Words with Webster
Hi, everybody! It’s me, Real Cat Webster. Welcome to Words
with Me. Today’s word is “vestibular.” I got the idea for this word from
reading this study
about cheetahs’ inner ears (okay, I only read the abstract and part of the
introduction; Mommy said she’ll read more later and tell me about it). Turns
out, the vestibular system of cheetahs is different from those of other cats,
and this specialized system helps cheetahs keep their heads and
vision stable while they’re chasing prey.
So what does “vestibular” mean? Well, that stuff about the
cheetahs was a clue. According to my favorite dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s, “vestibular” means “of, relating to, or
affecting the perception of body position and movement.” That is what the word
means when we’re talking about anatomy.
Next I went to the Oxford
English Dictionary, which says that our word means “of or pertaining to the
vestibule of the ear or its function as an organ of equilibrium.” This first showed
up in print in the 1830s:
The vestibular part of the membraneous labyrinth…is all that
is really fundamental in the structure of an organ of hearing. (Todd’s Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology
II.537/1, 1836–1839)
Okay, but if you’re like me (easily perplexed, or just really
curious), you’re probably wondering what the heck a vestibule is. I checked
that too, and Merriam-Webster’s said that it’s
any of various bodily cavities especially when serving as or
resembling an entrance to some other cavity or space: such as a (1) : the central cavity of the bony labyrinth of
the ear.
So basically, it is the structure in your ear that helps you
keep your balance. Basically, there are these semicircular canals, some fluid,
little hairs, and some other stuff. If you want to find out more, you can check
out this video from 2-Minute Neuroscience.
This illustration shows humans' inner ear anatomy. The vestibular
system includes the semicircular canals and vestibular apparatus. Illustration via Adobe Stock.
But where did the word “vestibule” (and “vestibular”) come
from? Well, the Online Etymology
Dictionary says it is from the French vestible,
which is from the Latin vestibulum,
meaning “forecourt, entrance.’’ The word entered English in the 1620s and first
meant “a porch.”
Next time you almost fall but then catch yourself and remain
standing, thank your vestibular system (and remember that even if you're a cat, your system is different from a
cheetah’s!).
Cheetahs run and change directions really fast when they're
hunting. They have a vestibular system that is unlike any other cats',
and it helps them keep their head steady and their eyes on their prey.
Friendly Fill-Ins
And now it’s time for Friendly Fill-Ins,
from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of
the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by old SoLT this week,
are from Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered by Real Cat Paisley,
are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.
Old SoLT’s answers:
1. The Winter Olympics are a lot of fun to watch, even though
I don’t usually manage to see much of them.
2. I think the most romantic movie (or book) is … well, I’m
not all that into romance, so I don’t know. Monty Python’s The Holy Grail?
Real Cat Paisley’s
answers:
3. Recently, I had an odd experience when the humans put
the Christmas tree away and moved a rocking chair to where the tree used to be.
It took me a few days to get used to that, but now I like it.
4. I believe that love is awesome, especially when Mommy tells me I’m her special little girl.
If you knew old SoLT really well, you would not be surprised by what I am about to say. She almost forgot to do a Caturday Art this week. Also, she almost forgot that today is Global Tiger Day (or International Tiger Day). It's just a good thing I was here to remind her! She real quick put something together in Illustrator:
What do you get when you combine Katharine Hepburn, Cary
Grant, and a leopard? The short answer is hilarity. The longer answer is the
1938 Howard Hawks film Bringing Up Baby.
The plot
Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a paleontologist who is on the
verge of completing the brontosaurus skeleton he has been working on for four
years. All he needs is one more bone (the “intercostal clavicle”), which is
being shipped to him. He is engaged to his assistant, Alice, who is thoroughly
focused on David’s career. No honeymoon for them! But before the wedding, David is due to play a round of golf with the representative of a wealthy woman
with a million dollars to give away—money David needs for his museum. It’s on
the golf course that he first meets Susan (Katharine Hepburn), who proceeds to
turn his life completely upside down. Because she is nuts, basically—but in the
funniest way possible. She has a way of saying crazy things and making them
sound almost reasonable.
Susan is not just going to let David go after their first encounter, so she calls him
pretending to be frantic because there’s a leopard in her apartment. Gentleman
that he is, he rushes over to help her, only to find the leopard, Baby, is
completely tame. Not that that makes David feel any better, because he doesn’t even
like regular-sized cats. Well, Susan just needs his help to take Baby to her
aunt in Connecticut—no matter that David is due to get married that very
afternoon. The little trip won't take any time at all.
As it turns out, Susan’s aunt happens to be the wealthy
woman with the million dollars, so Susan can help David get that money, right?
Ha! Actually, a dog named George (played by Skippy, who also played Asta in the
Thin Man films), takes the famous intercostal clavicle and buries it…somewhere.
Baby escapes and must be found. Unbeknownst to Susan, a vicious circus leopard also
escapes (we won’t even mention the inhumane treatment that most likely caused
that leopard to be vicious, and how big cats just should not be used for humans
to gawk at in circuses—oops, we mentioned it!).
Meanwhile, just being in Susan’s general proximity is making
David look like he’s as crazy as she is. But he’s secretly having a great time,
isn’t he? He says, "In moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn to you, but—well—there
haven't been any quiet
moments."
The leopard(s)
Both Baby and the circus leopard were played by Nissa the
Leopard, who was trained by Madame Olga Celeste. According to trivia posted on IMDb, Hepburn and
Baby got along well, but Cary Grant was "less fond" of the big cat. A double was
used when Grant’s character had to be close to the leopard. Hepburn had one
close call, when her swinging skirt caught Nissa’s attention and the leopard
lunged for her. Fortunately, the trainer was there to intervene. For safety, Hawks
used several optical tricks when filming so that the actors and Nissa would not
actually be in close proximity very much. A puppet leopard was also used for
some shots. But in the opening moments of this scene, in which Hepburn pets
Nissa like a housecat, it’s obvious how comfortable the human actress was around
her feline costar:
Nissa had just one other movie role, as a queen’s leopard in
Siren of Atlantis (1949).
Our verdict
We do love a screwball comedy, and Bringing Up Baby is one of the best. When we rewatched it for this
review, we were delighted all over again to see one zany scene after another.
Grant and Hepburn’s torn dress scene (below) has long been one of our
favorites. Hard to imagine that this film did badly at the box office, but it
is one of those that has become a beloved classic despite its rocky start.
For classic film lovers, Bringing
Up Baby is a must-see!
A
note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up.
One paw is for a good movie; two paws is for a great movie. She never gives
three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss
Cdoes
notdo
that!
The
link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the movie through this
link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!
We’ve recently received several news releases concerning our
big-cat cousins. Each one could be its own post, but we thought we’d condense
them all into one news roundup.
Sunda clouded leopard. Photo by Spencer Wright, North Walsham, England [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Common
African lions, clouded leopards, and declining prey populations
First, we learned that African lions and Sunda clouded leopards face the same threats that saber-toothed tigers faced. Researchers from several institutions looked into what caused
the extinction of seven big cat species from the Ice Age and concluded that
loss of prey was a major factor. They then looked at the prey species of modern
big cats and discovered that the African lion and Sunda clouded leopard (found
in Borneo and Sumatra) could be at risk. The researchers say that if prey
species for these cats continue to decline, the cats could have “a high risk of
extinction.”
A snow leopard in India's Hemis National Park. Photo by Snow Leopard Conservancy/Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Three subspecies of snow leopard identified
Next, we learned that 3 new subspecies of snow leopard have been identified. In the first-ever genetic analysis
across the snow leopard’s range, researchers used the cats’ scat (i.e., poop)
and identified three “genetic clusters.” They recognize these clusters as
subspecies, each inhabiting its own geographic region. Understanding the
subspecies populations can both help scientists understand the snow leopard’s
evolution and ecology and provide information that can be used to improve the cats’
conservation.
Tree-climbing lions now have smaller prides, larger ranges
Finally, we learned that Uganda’s tree-climbing lions are roaming farther as their prey animals decrease.
Scientists compared the home ranges of lion prides in Uganda’s Ishasha district
from the 1970s and today. They discovered that the tree-climbing lions of today
live in smaller prides with larger home ranges. This change has happened at the
same time that the lions’ main prey species, the Ugandan kob, has declined. (We're sure you don't need us to point out how this bit of news relates to the first story we shared.)
Tree-climbing lions in Uganda's Ishasha district. Photo by By Charlesjsharp, Sharp Photography [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Warning: Today’s
post has some rather gruesome parts to it, as we bring you the story of two of
our wild cousins who were famous for all the wrong reasons. You’ve been warned.
The Tsavo man-eaters
Every once in while, you hear of a “man-eating” lion, but
why do some lions choose to hunt humans instead of the four-legged hoofed
animals that are their usual prey? A new study recently published in Scientific Reports looked at “dental microwear” to see what they could learn about lions' eating behaviors
from evidence left behind on their teeth. The work suggests that at least in some cases,
the answer to "Why?" could be dental injury and disease.
The "Tsavo man-eaters" today, in a diorama at the Field Museum
in Chicago. The skins were sold to the museum for $5,000 some 25 years
after the lions' death.
By Superx308 Jeffrey Jung, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Two of the lions whose teeth were examined were the famous
Tsavo man-eaters of 1898. These were maneless male lions that, according to the
most spectacular estimate, killed up to 135 people. The actual number has been
shown to be much lower, about 35 people, but that is still a lot. The victims
were Indian members of a construction crew building a railroad bridge over the
Tsavo River in Kenya. The terror at the railroad workers’ camp began in March
1898 when, shortly after their arrival, men started to go missing. Searches
turned up mutilated bodies. Efforts to protect the camp with thorny barricades
failed, as the lions found a way through the barriers. One worker wrote that
the lions’
“very jaws were steeped in blood. Bones, flesh, skin and
blood, they devoured all, and left not a trace behind them.”
Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Patterson, an engineer and leader
of the expedition, wrote of hearing the cats crunching the bones of one of their victims,
purring as they did so.
The first of the two Tsavo man-eating lions (FMNH 23970)
shot by Lieutenant Colonel Patterson, 1898.
By Field Museum [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Patterson would eventually kill both of the lions, the first
on December 9, 1898. That lion was over nine feet long from his nose to the tip
of his tail, and it took eight men to carry him to the camp. The second lion,
killed three weeks later, was of similar size. Both lions had injuries to their
skin from the thorns that were used to try to protect the workers’ camp. Patterson
kept the skins as trophy rugs for some 25 years, before selling them to the
Field Museum in Chicago for $5,000. They were stuffed and placed on display,
and they can still be seen there.
(The 1996 movie The Ghost
and the Darkness, starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, dramatized the events
in the construction camp.)
What the teeth say
Although Patterson wrote of hearing the lions crunching
their victims’ bones, the evidence left behind on the cats’ teeth tells a
different story. The authors of the paper in Scientific Reports used something called dental microwear texture
analysis to determine what the lions were eating. The results suggest that, in
the period just before their death, the Tsavo man-eaters were not consuming the
bones of their prey and were instead consuming only the softer tissues.
The second Tsavo lion shot by Lieutenant Colonel Patterson.
This lion is now known as FMNH 23969.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The teeth also showed a possible reason the lions became
man-eaters. One of the cats had a serious dental injury, a broken lower tooth, and
the pain from that may have made it impossible for him to kill normal prey in
the usual lion way, through suffocation. That could have prompted him to pass
up his usual prey in favor of something softer, slower, and easier to catch, like people. The other
lion also had dental injuries, but his were less severe. Interestingly, for the
second lion, humans made up a smaller part of his diet than for the first lion—13%
versus 30%. And those numbers, by the way, also show that humans still made up
a relatively small part of both lions’ diets.
We think it’s worth noting that it seems that, even for the “man-eaters,”
humans were not at the top of the menu. The lion with the severely injured
tooth may have turned to the workers’ camp for prey because he was in too much
pain to routinely catch and kill other prey. The second lion may have been a true
copycat, learning from his companion how to take easy prey from the camp.
If you have about nine minutes, this video is well worth a look. It's from before the most recent paper was published, but you can see researcher Larisa DeSantis
demonstrating how molds of the lions’ teeth were made. Interesting!
Sources
Larisa R. G. DeSantis and Bruce D. Patterson, “Dietary
Behaviour of Man-Eating Lions as Revealed by Dental Microwear Textures,” Scientific Reports 7, April 19, 2017, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00948-5,
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-00948-5
J.H. Patterson, The
Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo and Other East Africa Adventures, 1907.
The iconic and majestic cheetah. Now that is a cat. But cheetahs could disappear
forever unless humans act to protect them. Photo credit: Zoological Society of London.
Hello, all. Webster here, coming to you from near the
Christmas tree.
The cat world got some shocking and upsetting news this week
when Panthera revealed a study showing that just 7,100 cheetahs remain in the
wild. The study’s authors want the cheetah’s status to be changed from “Vulnerable”
to “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The cheetah has
been driven out of 91% of its historic range, the study says. This is a big
problem because cheetahs do not stay in one little place; they get around, and
so they are often not in protected areas. In Zimbabwe, the cheetah population
has plunged from 1,200 to no more than 170 in just 16 years. That means 85% of
Zimbabwe’s cheetahs have been lost in that time.
This is a population headed in the wrong direction.
No more cheetahs means no more cheetah cubs. Photo credit: Zoological Society of London.
And so, I choose “extinction” as our word for this week. It
means
the act of making extinct or causing to be extinguished
: Quenching,
Suppression, Extermination, Destruction, Annihilation.
Once a species is extinct, it is gone … forever. The thought
of seeing this happen to a species as iconic as the cheetah is distressing. I
hope the humans out there will work together to find a way to make sure this
does not happen.
Read more about the study here,
and check out this infographicfrom Panthera.
Friendly Fill-Ins
And now, on a lighter note, it's time for Friendly Fill-Ins. from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of
the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by old SoLT, are from
Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered this week by Real Cat
Paisley, are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.
Old SoLT’s answers
1.
The highlight of my Christmas was spending time with my family.
2.
My New Year's resolution is … well, I don’t really do resolutions, but I am in
the process of getting my office more organized and hope to keep it that way
(stop laughing!). I also got myself a new guitar for Christmas and plan to learn
to strum a few songs (again, stop laughing!).
Real Cat Paisley’s answers
3. This year, 2016, was a nice year, except there was too much
politics among the humans. Cats don’t have politics, which is one reason we are
superior. Also, somewhat unfortunately, our family got a new dog.
4. Next year, 2017, I promise to try to get along better with
the dog (and if you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona
I’m looking to unload on the cheap!).
Today, October 12, 2016, is National Fossil Day™, an effort by the National Park Service to promote public
awareness of fossils and to highlight fossils’ scientific value. This year’s
theme is “Pleistocene life and landscapes.” Imagine, if you will, a place
called Pleistocene Park covering all of North America. We think this would be
way better than that old Jurassic thingamabob, because there would be so many
different kinds of big cats. By the way, in case you are as clueless as we were
about what “Pleistocene” means, it’s basically the period from about 1.6
million years ago to 10,000 years ago. The following list of big cats of the North
American Pleistocene is organized by genus and species.
Genus Dinofelis
These cats, known as “false saber-tooths” because the form
of their teeth was something between a saber-tooth and that of modern species, were
between a leopard and lion in size. Their fossils have been unearthed in
Pleistocene deposits in Eurasia, Africa, and North America.
Genus Homotherium
Human, meet Homotherium. Obviously, this was not
a cat you'd want to keep in your cave. They'd be
perfect for Pleistocene Park, though. By Dantheman9758
at English Wikipedia [CCBY 3.0], via WikimediaCommons.
These were lion-sized saber-toothed cats known from 3
million to 10,000 years ago in North American. In Friesenhahn Cave in Texas, an articulated
skeleton (H. serum) was discovered,
along with the remains of over 30 individuals, including cubs. The teeth of
several young mammoths were also found there, which could be evidence that the
cats specialized in preying on mammoths.
Genus Panthera
Panthera onca
This is your basic jaguar, and yes, they are known from the
Pleistocene, when they ranged well into North America (up to Washington State).
I say “your basic jaguar,” though the Pleistocene cats seem to have been larger
than the modern variety. They have been found mostly where lions were not common, in today’s Florida, Texas,
and Tennessee.
Cast of Panthera atrox skull. A skull like this could
have belonged to a lion in our Pleistocene Park. By
Claire H. from New York City, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 ], via WikimediaCommons.
Panthera leo
Yes, there would be honest-to-goodness lions in our North
American Pleistocene Park. Some scientists consider the American lion (P. atrox) its own species.
Panthera tigris
Tigers were also around in the Pleistocene, and they might
have crossed the land bridge from Asia into North America, thus entering our park.
Genus Felis
Felis concolor
Some of you may recognize this as the scientific name of the
mountain lion, otherwise known as the puma or cougar. These cats are known only
in the Americas, and they appear in the fossil record from about 500,000 years
ago.
Genus Miracinonyx
These cats were similar to modern cheetahs and may have been
a primitive form of cheetah. The genus is known in North America from fossil
remains of two species, M. inexpectatus
and M. trumani. The older M. inexpectatus, from about 3.2 million
years ago, is out of the time range of our park, but M. trumani was from 10,000–20,000 years ago, so they’d fit in
nicely. Their bones were similar to those of modern cheetahs, but their claws
were more fully retractable (modern cheetahs have semi-retractable claws).
In case you're wondering, here you can see the
relative sizes of the three Smilodon species.
That blue man should stop waving and start running! By
Matthew Martyniuk, adapted from 2001 original by Walking with Beasts (Own work)
[GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons.
Genus Smilodon
And so we come to perhaps the most famous of the Pleistocene
cats, the saber-toothed cats of genus Smilodon. These cats are known from North and South America,
and the last of them became extinct about 10,000 years ago. In the famous La
Brea Tar Pits of California, at least 12,000 individuals have been found.
Three species are recognized:
S. gracilis was
the smallest and earliest (2.5 million to 500,000 years ago) of the three. They
lived in what is today the eastern United States.
S. populator was
the largest (the size of a modern lion). They are known from eastern South
America, and they had huge upper canines.
S. fatalis, the
species that would be appropriate for our park, fell between the other two in
size. They are known mostly from Pleistocene deposits in North America, though
they have also been found in South America. When you think “La Brea Tar Pits” (or "Pleistocene Park"), think “Smilodon fatalis”!
And what would a story about Pleistocene cats be
without a saber-toothed cat skull? This one is Smilodon fatalis.
We hope you've enjoyed this brief journey to meet the cats of Pleistocene Park. We really did not know there were so many species of big cats way back then, and they weren't all saber-toothed. Thanks to National Fossil Day, now we know!
Alan Turner, with illustrations by Mauricio Antón,
The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives (New York: Columbia University Press,
1997).
If you are in to big prehistoric cats at all, I think you’ll
find this book an excellent reference. The paperback is reasonably priced, it’s readable, and it’s heavily
illustrated, including 16 color plates. Highly recommended!
The link below is an
Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT
and I could get some coin for our kibble account.
Friends, our wild cousins are in trouble. I’m talking about
tigers and snow leopards (endangered), lions and cheetahs (vulnerable), and
jaguars and leopards (near threatened). I’m talking about big cats whose very existence
is threatened by habitat loss, poaching, and loss of prey. It’s easy to get a
little bit upset by this situation and then say, “Well, that’s awful, but there’s
nothing I can do about it.”
Not true! There are things you can do, and one of those
things is to get involved in a citizen science project called CameraCATalogue.
The Camera CATalogue project is from Panthera, a conservation organization
dedicated to preserving wild cats, including cheetahs, jaguars, leopards,
lions, pumas, snow leopards, and tigers. It is run through Zooniverse, a website that hosts a whole
collection of citizen science projects you can get involved in, from looking
for comets to transcribing US Civil War–period military telegraphs to
classifying cyclone data. Old SoLT has dabbled in a few Zooniverse projects
over the last few years, because she is just that kind of nerd.
Camera CATalogue asks volunteers (that would be you) to look
at photos captured from motion-activated camera-trap stations in Africa and identify
what animals, if any, they see. The data are used to help estimate wild cat
populations and see how they’re changing.
Easy and hard
It’s so easy to get started: You just go to the site, do a
short tutorial, and in just a few mouse-clicks you’re identifying African
wildlife. You’ll be shown a random series of photos from camera traps, and if
there are animals present, you just select the species from a list and indicate
how many there are and which side of the animal is visible (left, right, front,
or back). If you sign up for a Zooniverse account (which is free), you can
participate in forums and create a collection of the cool photos you’ve
identified.
I labeled this section “Easy and hard” because, while it’s
easy to look at a picture of an animal, it’s not always easy to figure out what
the animal is. Sometimes the animal is so close to the camera, you see just a
big brown blurry furry something. Sometimes the animal is at an awkward angle that
doesn’t let you see any identifying characteristics. This seems to happen quite
often with the antelope-shaped animals—at least that’s where old SoLT has
trouble. What you do in these cases is just take your best guess. The photos
are shown to several different people, they all take their best guess, and some
sort of consensus is reached from all those guesses. At least that’s my
understanding of the process.
While Camera CATalogue is about big cats, you should be
prepared to not actually see any big cats. Don’t worry…you will see lots of
animals. We have seen wildebeest, impalas, elephants, zebras, monkeys, rhinos, warthogs,
and more (check out our collection here).
We’ve also seen various jeeps, trucks, tractors, and other vehicles. We’ve seen
people. We’ve seen many, many pictures with nothing in them. And we’ve seen an
African civet (looks sort of catlike, but not a cat), a genet (also catlike, but not a cat), and a serval (cat!).
But we have yet to actually see a lion or leopard or
cheetah.
A typical bunch of photos goes something like this:
You might not see a lot of cats by participating in this
project. You might not see any cats at all. But you never know…the next photo
you see could have a lion in it. Old SoLT finds that she sits down thinking she’ll
spend about ten minutes identifying photos, and an hour later she’s still
sitting there saying, “I’ll just do this one, and then I’ll quit. Ooh, is that a
jackal? Okay, just one more…”
Four endangered cat species. Clockwise from top left:
Amur Tiger, Andean Cat, Flat-headed Cat, Fishing Cat. Credits: Amur Tiger in Louisville Zoo by Ltshears [CC BY-SA 3.0]. Andean Cat by Jim Sanderson [CC BY-SA 3.0 ]. Flat-headed Cat by Jim Sanderson [CC BY-SA 3.0]. Fishing Cat in Tennoji Zoo, Osaka, Japan, by pelican [CC BY-SA 2.0].
For Earth Day 2016,
we thought we’d take a look at how our wild cousins are doing, so we went to
the Internet to collect data, which She of Little Talent put into this table.
She even added subspecies and color-coded it, so it might actually be useful.
As you can see, some species seem to be doing well, but there is still too much
yellow, orange, and red (Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered,
respectively) on that list.
To get a Word or pdf
file of the list, drop an e-mail to roby@robysweet.com
and we’ll send you one.
Conservation Status of Wild Cat Species
Taxonomic
Name
Common
Name
Status (publication date)*
Panthera leo
Lion
Vulnerable
(2015)
P. leo
West African subpopulation
Critically Endangered (2015)
P. leo
persica
Asiatic Lion, Indian Lion
Endangered (2008)
Panthera tigris
Tiger
Endangered
(2015)
P. tigris
altaica
Amur Tiger
Endangered (2011)
P. tigris
amoyensis
South China Tiger
Critically Endangered, possibly extinct in
wild (2015)
P. tigris
corbetti
Indochinese Tiger
Endangered (2011)
P. tigris
jacksoni
Malayan Tiger
Critically Endangered (2015)
P. tigris
sumatrae
Sumatran Tiger
Critically Endangered (2008)
P. tigris
tigris
Bengal Tiger
Endangered (2011)
P. tigris
balica
Bali Tiger
Extinct (1940s)
P. tigris
sondaica
Javan Tiger
Extinct (mid-1970s)
P. tigris virgata
Caspian Tiger
Extinct (1970s)
Panthera onca
Jaguar
Near
Threatened
Panthera uncia
Snow
Leopard
Endangered
Panthera pardus
Leopard
Near Threatened
P. pardus
kotiya
Sri Lankan Leopard
Endangered (2008)
P. pardus
melas
Javan Leopard
Critically Endangered (2008)
P. pardus nimr
Arabian Leopard
Critically Endangered (2008)
P. pardus
orientalis
Amur Leopard
Critically Endangered (2008)
P. pardus
saxicolor
Persian Leopard
Endangered (2008)
Neofilis nebulosa
Clouded
Leopard
Vulnerable
Catopuma badia
Borneo Bay
Cat
Endangered
Pardofelis marmorata
Marbled
Cat
Near
Threatened
Catopuma temminckii
Asiatic
Golden Cat
Near
Threatened
Leptailurus serval
Serval
Least Concern
Caracal caracal
Caracal
Least
Concern
Caracal aurata
African
Golden Cat
Vulnerable
(2015)
Leopardus pardalis
Ocelot
Least
Concern (2015)
Leopardus wiedii
Margay
Near
Threatened (2015)
Leopardus geoffroyi
Geoffroy’s
Cat
Least
Concern (2015)
Leopardus guigna
Guiña
Vulnerable
(2015)
Leopardus jacobita
Andean Cat
Endangered
(2008)
Leopardus tigrinus
Oncilla
Vulnerable
(2008)
L.
tigrinus oncilla
Central American Oncilla, Central American
Little Spotted Cat
